Tourism agents call for mutual recognition of vaccine certificates with key third countries

The Federated Association of Travel and Tourism Agents (FATTA) is calling on authorities to sign bilateral agreements on the mutual recognition of vaccine certificates, to allow travel to and from key third countries like the UK, the USA and Canada.

Welcoming the new legal notice laying down the conditions allowing safe travel to and from Malta, FATTA said that it had strongly advocated for a negative PCR test result to be a mandatory requirement verified prior to a traveller boarding a flight to Malta.

“This minimises the risk of imported cases and variants of coronavirus and safeguards the substantial progress achieved locally by the foresighted and accelerated vaccine rollout programme,” it said.

Now, as the country gears itself for a cautious restart of tourism, the Association is urging the authorities to proactively pursue and negotiate relevant bilateral agreements with key third countries for the mutual recognition of vaccine certificates for EMA-approved vaccines to empower safe travel between Malta and such countries.

“This will not only facilitate safe inbound and outbound tourism from and to the respective countries but, perhaps equally importantly, enable VFR (visiting friends and relatives) traffic from and to third countries such as UK, USA and Canada and others.”

FATTA reiterated that the initiatives directed at assisting travel and tourism to and from Malta must continue to be guided by a cautious approach that maintains strict restrictions so as not to jeopardise the noteworthy results achieved to date in controlling the spread of the virus.